Trayvon Martin killed in state where 1 in 17 adults legally can carry concealed weapon

SANFORD — The night Trayvon Martin was shot to death, George Zimmerman was one of 1,903 residents in his Sanford ZIP code with permits to carry concealed handguns, state records show.

That would be astronomically high in some states, but central Sanford doesn't rank in Central Florida's top 10 ZIP codes with the most concealed-weapons-permit holders. In that Sanford ZIP code, the figure translated to roughly 6 percent of adults 21 and older.

Taking guns to work, church and play in Florida has become so widespread in the past 25 years that the state likely leads the U.S. in the number of residents legally carrying guns. With nearly 920,000 active concealed-weapons permits, the Sunshine State is home to almost as many gun dealers as its 2,300 citrus farms, according to state and federal records.

Clearly, many Floridians have embraced their Second Amendment rights. But the state has come under fire by gun-control groups, which blame Trayvon's death on Florida's stand-your-ground law and lenient firearms rules.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence cites the unarmed teenager's death as reason to oppose a nationwide effort under way to let concealed-weapons-permit holders carry their handguns in all 50 states. Right now, Floridians can travel armed in 32 other states.

"We're heartbroken about this tragedy, but we're not surprised it happened in Florida," said Brady Campaign President Dan Gross. "The gun lobby has worked very hard to make Florida its armed utopia with a shoot-first, ask-questions-later mentality. This is what happens when you put guns in the hands of dangerous people like George Zimmerman."

Former NRA President Marion Hammer, the lobbyist behind the Florida Legislature's passage of the nation's first stand-your-ground law in 2005, would not speak about the shooting but accused gun-control advocates of exploiting Trayvon's death.

"They let no tragedy go unused. They trample on tragedies for political advantage and political gain," she said. "There is an investigation going on. Nobody knows what the facts are, and it's inappropriate to make comments at this time."

Rise began in 1980s

The proliferation of guns in Florida has mirrored Americans' fear of crime and urge to arm themselves for protection.

For Floridians, the fear was palpable in the mid-1980s, when Dade County had the country's highest crime rate, according to a Florida State University Law Review study of the concealed-weapons law.

But demand had been increasing since the early 1980s, when a state Supreme Court decision restricted how guns could be carried in pickups and cars.

More interest in guns for personal protection came after a controversial 1984 shooting in a New York City subway car. Bernhard Goetz, a businessman denied a gun permit, used an unlicensed revolver to wound four black teenagers he claimed were trying to mug him.

"I don't think that case had anything to do with it," said Hammer, also the lobbyist behind the Legislature's move in 1987 to overturn the state's 19th-century concealed-weapons restrictions. "We were already fighting the battle here in Florida."

Under Florida's concealed-weapons-permit law, residents don't have to explain why they want to carry a gun or demonstrate they can hit a target to receive a permit.

Applicants must first pass a criminal-background check and a class lasting up to four hours on self-defense law, safe gun handling and marksmanship. But training had become so lax in recent years that some classes were taught with toy pistols until the National Rifle Association threatened to pull the instructors' credentials in 2008 if they didn't use real guns and bullets.

Some states set stricter requirements than in Florida, where about one in 17 adults 21 and older has concealed-weapons permits.

In Texas, applicants must pass a 10-to-15-hour class and a timed shooting test with a minimum score of 70 percent while firing 50 shots over three different distances.

Texas has about 6 million more residents than Florida but has issued half as many concealed-weapons permits, according to Texas Department of Public Safety records. The 461,724 permits in Texas are the equivalent of one in every 37 adults.

California, twice as populous as Florida, with 37 million residents, has just 38,122 active concealed-weapons permits, according to the state Attorney General's Office. That's one in every 688 adults. The permits are issued by county sheriffs and municipal police chiefs, who must approve each application.

Stricter laws until 1987

Gun laws in Florida before 1987 were similar to California's restrictions and made it nearly impossible for most Sunshine State residents to legally carry firearms for protection, according to interviews.

Each of the state's 67 counties set its own rules, and nearly half did not issue permits at all, according to a 1983 study conducted by the state House of Representatives' Criminal Justice Committee.